<DIV><DIV><DIV><DIV>For too long, the Puppeteers have controlled the fate of worlds.&nbsp; Now Sigmund is pulling the strings . . . </DIV></DIV><DIV>Covert agent Sigmund Ausfaller is Earth's secret weapon, humanity's best defense against all conspiracies, real and potential - and imaginary - of foes both human and alien.&nbsp; Who better than a brilliant paranoid to expose the devious plots of others?</DIV><DIV>&nbsp;</DIV><DIV>He may finally have met his match in Nessus, representative of the secretive Puppeteers, the elder race who wield vastly superior technologies.&nbsp; Nessus schemes in the shadows with Earth's traitors and adversaries, even after the race he reperesents abruptly vanishes from Known Space.</DIV><DIV>As a paranoid, Sigmund had always known things would end horribly for him.&nbsp; Only the when, where, how, why, and by whom of it all had eluded him.&nbsp; That fog has begun to lift...</DIV><DIV>&nbsp;</DIV><DIV>But even Sigmund has never imagined how far his investigations will take him - or that his destiny is entwined with the fates of worlds.</DIV></DIV></DIV>